Verona council tells staff to study 6500 Shady Bend Road as possible public works site

The Verona Common Council on Aug. 11 asked city staff to further investigate a 40-acre parcel at 6500 Shady Bend Road as a potential future public works site, with staff directed to walk the site, contact the owner and return with more information.

City Administrator Jamie Alek said the parcel is “approximately 40 acres, in size” and that the listing price “is $4,450,000.” He joined Public Works Director Brian Manning in the presentation and discussion about whether the city should pursue the property.

Council members said the site could meet the city’s need for a consolidated public works campus but flagged significant hurdles: the parcel is in the Town of Verona and would require annexation and an urban service area expansion; sanitary sewer and water mains would need to be extended; and new rights-of-way would likely be required. Manning said the site is not a clean, uninterrupted 40 acres and that some portions are in environmental corridors; he also noted that the city might realistically use roughly 10–20 acres for the public works facility depending on right-of-way and other dedications.

“The Whelan Road property was my heart set on it, until we got some bad news from the DNR that there’s a 1,200 foot distance that we need to keep our salt storage away from the well,” Brian Manning, Public Works Director, said. Manning described the Shady Bend parcel as an alternative that “looks like it meets our requirements” but that would require annexation and utility extensions. He recommended staff further explore the site on foot to confirm constraints and usable acreage.

Council members discussed access and traffic concerns, potential costs and topology advantages of other parcels, and whether the city should pursue a smaller parcel nearby instead. Alder Tucker Long noted the Shady Bend list price and the potential usable acreage could make the per-acre cost comparable to alternatives. Alder Harrison urged staff to keep options open and to try to prioritize a site the city can use sooner rather than later.

There was no motion to purchase or to authorize an immediate offer. Instead, the council’s direction was procedural: staff should contact the seller, perform a site walkthrough, refine estimates of usable acreage and infrastructure costs, and report back with findings. Mayor and council members indicated support for exploring the Shady Bend site while continuing to evaluate the previously considered Whelan/Wayland property.

Staff will return with the results of the site visit, any updated appraisals or engineering constraints, and recommendations about next steps. The council did not authorize a purchase or any expenditure at the Aug. 11 meeting.

Details from the council discussion indicate key constraints to later decisions: annexation and urban service area expansion are required; sanitary sewer and water main extensions would be necessary; right-of-way dedication may reduce usable acreage; environmental corridors exist on parts of the parcel; and state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) setback rules affect salt-storage placement.